Basic+ Word of the Day: waste

waste (verb, noun) past tense: wasted

Food waste.

If you waste something, it means that you don’t use it well. For example, if you waste money, it means that you spend money on something that isn’t useful for you.

• Don’t waste your money on that expensive watch.
• Every time you leave the light on, you’re wasting electricity.

When someone wastes something, we can say that it is a waste.

• That meeting was a waste of time. (=The meeting wasn’t useful at all.)

Waste also means the same as trash or garbage.

• We have a special bin for food waste.

If something goes to waste, it means that we don’t use it, and that it has to go in the trash.

• Please, eat some more! I don’t want this food to go to waste.

In pop culture

Most people don’t eat all the food that they buy. A lot of it goes in the trash. This ad asks us to stop wasting food. What is the surprise at the end of the ad?

There are other meanings of waste.